Patience is a virtue

Thanks to those of you who are dealing with issues with posting on the blog. I’m working with our friends at MLB.com to try and get it remedied so please hang in there.

In the meantime, it’s been a very busy day, as we visited White Memorial Hospital with Guillermo Mota and Ramon Troncoso, who were awesome with the kids. Came back to the small media crush revolving around last night’s Fielder debacle and heading down to the press box now.

In the meantime, here’s tonight’s lineup for the game starting shortly…Manny gets a night off and we all know what happened last time he had a night off when we gave out his bobblehead and he didn’t play. If he hits a pinch hit homer tonight, we’ll have to make a poster to commemorate the poster that commemorated the bobblehead night!!! Or something like that.

Why do we keep playing with fire like this!?!?!? I mean, the guy obviously gets lucky if he has any success at all. The ball happens to land in someone’s glove… You’ve heard him say so himself…. So, why I ask you… do we keep doing this!?!?!? Who pitched that last batter? I didnt see it? Was it JMac?

We are going to be in trouble if we can’t become more consistent again…. this team has been looking way too much like the one from the first half of last year. It’s going to allow the Giants and Rox to catch us…. Luckily we’ve been really good against the NL west this year

We’re losing series we should really be winning!! We could be in trouble with Atlanta and St. Louis coming to town… we all know how that went last week…… We HAVE to win the series we are SUPPOSED to win!!

I don’t blame Fielder for getting mad last night, he probably didn’t notice what was going on and didn’t expect that to happen.
I have to admit I was completely taken by surprised, myself, in the 9th inning.

Like brandon said, if our heroes lose tonight they will be a very pedestrian 11-10 since the All-Star break. Not sure what’s really going on with this team but I sometimes get the feeling there’s little urgency in their play. Their opponents HAVE to win–they’re all fighting for their collective lives in pennant races. The Dodgers have not HAD to win a game for a long, long time, maybe since the Colorado series at home. The season is a long grind and it’s hard to maintain an edge for 6 straight months. Perhaps the sight of the Gnats next Monday up north will shake this club. Something better.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many games left…Dodgers are assured of NOTHING right now. Cream rises to the top, so they’re either good enough or they’re not. Remember, they had to scratch and claw last season to overtake the D-Backs…and they didn’t make that happen until late. It’s human nature to play scoreboard but the Dodgers have to take care of their own business. Their illustrious GM’s contract runs out this season. If anyone is sweating bullets, it will be him. Personally, I have a lot of confidence in this 2009 crew.

Kahli – I would have loved to see us get a SP, but overall, I am glad we stuck with the young guns and didn’t trade any of them away. They, along with Manny and the rest of the starting veterans got us this far, and I want to see them finish it this time. What they are going through now will hopefully make them stronger in the long run, which in turn should help them in the playoffs.

Our team has played brilliantly at least until the All-Star game, and that was with and without Manny*roid. Our pitching held up better than was expected with Billz having a very good beginning and with Kersh then picking up from him to be the stopper. Even Kuroda being gone and the constant shift of #5 pitchers didn’t upset things very much, because the bullpen, overused or not, really brought their best game to the park practically every night. It has been no secret that we needed another GOOD starter, but it would have cost too much to acquire one. I say that because it always seems to cost Ned too much to acquire anybody, Hudson being the rare exception because there seemed to be no other market for him at the time. I don’t know why all the other GMs seem to think that Ned is the patsy, but that’s how it seems to come out.

The team has now come down to a more normal playing level, which sometimes borders on the mediocre. Our strength is the bullpen and a couple of our maturing and achieving youngsters, namely Andre and Matt. Blake has been a good addition, and Loney and Martin are doing OK, but nothing exceptional. The starting pitching will likely remain highly variable as we close in to the end of the season. Frankly, both the Giants and Rockies have been playing better ball, and there is still enough time for them to catch us. If they do, or if we exit the playoffs quite early, I think it will come down to the fact that Ned never really did his job for our ballclub. Our weaknesses were always apparent (starting pitching), we didn’t suddenly lose our ability as a club because of major injury loss – so, since ballclubs no longer typically build from within for a championship season, Ned simply did not respond to our needs to improve the club in the vital and obvious area – not last year, and not this year.

Ned’s contract is up at the end of the year. Frankly, whether we win the rest of the way, or whether we lose, Ned has accomplished very little in his time as the GM, and even overlooking the huge sums of money lost on people like Schmidt and Andruw, Ned needs to GO. It would almost seem like a foregone conclusion if we get nosed out for the playoffs, but if that’s what it takes to get rid of Ned and install either Logan White or Ng, so be it. I’m always for the Dodgers winning, but losing Ned would be a win for the long run and for a possible Dodger dynasty, as long as those last these days.

Colletti is a cancer for this franchise. He’s had enough time to perform and get us to the top. It will be a good time to see him GO and get another fresh start next year, regardless of how this season finishes out for us.

bear, you are right about CO and SF. I think Joe thinks he can rest whoever he wants because LA is cruising to the title, but if we’re not careful, we’re going to be on the outside looking in with a total disaster on our hands. The Dodgers are what, 10-10 since the break? I’m worried, despite that great 17 run game, because I don’t trust Joe to do the right thing.

…and Scott, maybe it’s because I am pretty much listening to the gnats play everyday (I am usually not watching the games, but I can hear everything that is happening in the game), but right now, their pitching is great and their bats are getting the job done as well. It was mentioned on the radio yesterday how strong their bullpen has become, and their belief is that is because their SPs are able to go further into games. Plus, they went out and got exactly what they were looking for……..a second baseman that can play the position well (defense has been an issue for the gnats) and a bat (and a first baseman) in Garko. I really didn’t want to give up too many to get a SP, but we had the entire off-season as well were the Dodger management “seemed” to be more concerned in playing cat and mouse with Manny and taking Andre to arbitration rather than looking into a SP, which Torre asked for.

Now, going back to what messagebear said, if anything comes out of this, win or lose, hopefully it ends (in October of course) with the firing of Ned.

Thanks, Nelly, and you bring up an excellent point about taking Andre to arbitration. Not only was that extremely ill thought out, but it sets us up for similar bad situations with so many of the other young guns coming up. This management seems very badly prepared to deal with our guys long range, so I dread to see what this team will look like a few years down the road, unless our GM and some of his type of thinking change.

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